The column is clear and enlightened about the change that can happen at any moment: you will have to start again!

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The man simply felt great. Under the name “globalization”, it admires how what belongs to each other grows together: us, people around the world. At the same time, it knows that from cradle to grave it is in the hands of a modern universal called the state. Nothing can happen to people, they have too much in their daily lives and are simply spoiled for choice. There are final political skirmishes, but in fact everyone agrees: the world is good, and it’s good that the world is good.

Then a sudden awakening followed by suffering and pessimism. Wars rage on the outskirts of the zone of plenty, and spoiled people are no longer comfortable in their own skin or safe in their homes. Migration increases, energy becomes scarce, politicians simply react. Climate change looms in the background, and artificial intelligence, which no longer needs humans, shines on the horizon.

To speak theologically, and this is the appropriate language for our day, man’s feelings fluctuate between equality with God and insignificance, he fluctuates between self-aggrandizement and constant depression. Is this what the ending is like? Or do people still have hope and even salvation?

People like to exaggerate themselves – and stoop low

Emil Brunner, the forgotten but great Zurich theologian, described this hesitation in different ways. In his opinion, part of the human being is the “deification of man,” “which makes man at the same time nothing and a god.” A person exaggerates himself and his work in order to despair and then fall even further.

According to Brunner, people find salvation by realizing their essence: every person is desired and destined. Theologically this means: He is called, or rather called. And he answers this call with his existence. This is his responsibility, and this, in turn, is the basis of human freedom. People always have the right to start again – at any point in their lives. Because he owes his life not to himself, but to someone else. Every individual is a new beginning and is therefore capable of starting something new again and again.

The one who takes advantage of this opportunity does not need to elevate himself and then lower himself. He is neither God nor nothing. Instead, he feels secure in an order that he does not fully understand, but of which he is an indispensable part. This is not the end, as you might think today, but rather a turning point: have the courage to start again. In your life. Now.

René Scheu is a philosopher and managing director of the Institute for Swiss Economic Policy (IWP) in Lucerne. With this text, two years later he completed his work as a columnist for Blik.

Source: Blick